NEWPORT BEACH, CA -- Force 10 Partners, a Southern California-based provider of financial and strategic solutions to challenging business situations, today announced confirmation of the Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization and closing of a $35 million exit financing package for XS Ranch Fund VI, L.P. XS Ranch, sited in the metro-Austin city of Bastrop, TX, is an approximately 8,700 acre master-planned residential community entitled for 10,000 residential lots and 500,000 square feet of commercial space.

Force 10 Partner Michael VanderLey, who has served as the XS Ranch project’s Chief Restructuring Officer since May 2017, noted that the plan of reorganization and exit financing will result in all creditors being paid in full.

“This project faced some unique challenges -- at the point we were engaged, it was a tangle of aggressively prosecuted litigation and zero liquidity,” said VanderLey. “We’re quite pleased with this outcome -- the agreement we were able to structure and reach with all parties is fair, equitable and was achieved relatively quickly and efficiently.”

James Foster, CEO of XS Ranch developer Coast Range Investments, LC, said "Force 10 analyzed XS Ranch, its potential as a development project, and the surrounding litigation and decided it was a good investment of their time and resources. They recognized opportunity to help make the creditors whole, get XS Ranch back on track and generate ROI for our limited partners. Obviously, I am happy with the results -- now the project and the economic value it will create can continue to move forward."

Force 10 Partners is pleased to announce the sale of the majority of the assets, including the intellectual property of EarthOne Circuit Technology Corporation (dba eSurface) under section 363 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. eSurface was established in August 2010 to develop and market an evolutionary, patented technology for applied conductive materials on virtually any surface. eSurface focused on the circuit board (PCB).

eSurface filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 21, 2017, and operated as a debtor-in-possession until October 17, 2017 when the case was converted to Chapter 7 and Richard Marshack was appointed Chapter 7 Trustee. The Trustee employed Force 10 to maximize the value of assets for the benefit of all creditors. Concurrent with running a process to find the highest and best offer, Force 10 negotiated a stalking horse bid with the secured lenders which included cash consideration in addition to all of their secured debt. Force 10 then confirmed with other potential interested parties that there were no overbidders and the sale proceeded on December 12th, 2017. After the statutory appeal period expires, the transaction will close. Force 10 is also engaged to investigate and help pursue other liquidated and unliquidated assets of eSurface.

Force 10 partners have completed over 100 engagements. Force 10’s recent Chapter 11 success includes the Chapter 11 confirmations of AirFastTickets, Inc., Turnberry/MGM Grand Towers, and a $17 million individual real estate asset case. Other current engagements include the Creditor's Committee of East Coast Foods (dba Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles), Financial Advisor to the Trustee of Don Rose Oil and CRO roles with XS Ranch Fund and Pacific Mortgage Fund as well as numerous other debtors and creditors.

XS Ranch is an approximately 8,700-acre master-planned residential project in Bastrop, TX, entitled for 10,000 residential lots and 500,000 sq ft of commercial space. XS Ranch was placed into an involuntary Chapter 7 Bankruptcy proceeding in the Northern District of California in December 2016. Force 10 was retained by the estate in May 2017 to map out a strategy to create value for creditors and equity holders. The case was converted to a voluntary Chapter 11 as of June 2017.

Michael VanderLey is a Partner at Force 10. Michael is a career real estate and capital markets professional with an extensive background originating and asset-managing real estate equity and debt investments, plus over 15 years of advisory and consulting experience. He works with public and private sponsors, operators, investors and real estate dependent operating companies with respect to asset and portfolio-level transactions, debt and equity financings, restructurings and business combinations including joint ventures and M&A, and on strategic issues affecting enterprise value.

Over the course of his 30+ year career, Michael has led transactions involving every major real estate asset class and has originated, acquired, advised on or managed investment positions at every level of the capital structure and across the return spectrum from core to opportunistic. He has extensive special situations experience, having represented debtors, secured creditors, creditors’ committees and equity interests in connection with numerous restructurings and Chapter 11 cases - - including leading and advising on financing and sale processes totaling over $5 Billion. In addition, Michael has served as testifying expert or consultant-to-counsel on engagements involving Chapter 11 interest rate and plan feasibility matters, leasehold valuation and damages, partnership disputes, underwriting procedures, loan servicing and administration, and real estate capital markets conditions.

Prior to Force 10, Michael was a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting where, as part of the Corporate Finance segment and member of the Real Estate Solutions group, he led the Real Estate Capital Markets practice within FTI Capital Advisors, LLC, an investment banking subsidiary of FTI. Michael joined the firm as a Managing Director in 2009.

Force 10 Partners announces the sale of an illiquid real-estate-backed note for Trustee, Jeffrey I. Golden, in his capacity as bankruptcy trustee.

With an original face value of $850,000, the note was too small to gain wide attention from traditional direct buyers or find liquidity through debt capital markets exchanges. Nonetheless, Force 10 did solicit and receive bids. Ultimately, Force 10 determined a sale to the borrower was in the best interest of the bankruptcy estate and negotiated the price to 90% of face value. The sale was completed under Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code via an uncontested motion and final bankruptcy court order.

Drawing on over 25 years' of special situations and restructuring experience, coupled with a unique and diverse network of relationships, Force 10 can value and monetize nonperforming loans, illiquid securities, judgments, claims, and liens.

A Force 10 Partners litigation support team, lead by Expert Witness Adam Meislik, successfully help defend Idanta Partners Ltd., a venture capital firm, by persuading a California jury to award zero dollars of unjust enrichment. The award followed a 10-year court battle where the plaintiff was seeking $25 million after a finding that the defendants had aided and abetted a breach of fiduciary duty. Force 10 assisted the law firm of Fox Rothschild LLP, who scored their second major victory for Idanta and its principals. Fox was retained to handle an appeal after a jury hit the defendants with a $7 million unjust enrichment award. (Idanta was represented by a different law firm in the first trial.) The Fox Rothschild team was lead by Jon Shaeffer and Jeff Grant.

Shaeffer and Grant convinced the appellate court to toss out the unjust enrichment award and ordered a new trial on that issue. Force 10 was employed to provide expert testimony in the retrial where it calculated and defended its opinion that there was no unjust enrichment.

Following a nearly three-week retrial, the jury deliberated for only two hours before returning a complete defense verdict and awarded the plaintiff nothing, thereby agreeing with Force 10's opinion.

In the suit, plaintiff American Master Lease, a real estate syndication business, alleged that Idanta had raided its employees and aided and abetted a breach of fiduciary duty. The sole issue on retrial was the amount of unjust enrichment to award.

Landmark Fence and Gate Co., Inc., a California Corporation, executed a General Assignment for the benefit of its creditors in favor of Force 10 Agency Services LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company (the “Assignee”). The General Assignment was accepted by the Assignee on November 18, 2016.

General Assignments are a well-established means to liquidate an insolvent company without filing bankruptcy. General Assignments have been a part of the law in the state of California for over 75 years.

Meislik and Rubin were previously with GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group, LLC, where Meislik was a Senior Managing Director and Co-President of GlassRatner Securities, LLC, and Rubin was a Senior Managing Director. Weiss comes from BSW & Associates, a firm he founded over ten years ago.

AFT is a matter that Meislik and Weiss each worked on prior to forming Force 10. Meislik was AFT’s Custodian Pendente Lite and Receiver, both appointed by Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery, and then AFT’s responsible party, making decisions on behalf of AFT as a Debtor in Possession during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Weiss acted as the Debtor in Possession's Financial Advisor.

The Debtor’s other employed professionals include Arent Fox LLP, lead by Aram Ordubegian, and Russell Silberglied of Richards, Layton & Finger, PA.

Meislik and Rubin were previously with GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group, LLC, where Meislik was a Senior Managing Director and Co-President of GlassRatner Securities, LLC, and Rubin was a Senior Managing Director. Weiss comes from BSW & Associates, a firm he founded over ten years ago.

Meislik, Rubin, and Weiss founded Force 10 based on their unique insights and experience, consisting of an amalgamation of investment banking, accounting, finance, strategy, and gamesmanship, all rooted in years of experience. “We formed Force 10 to achieve success with our clients by drawing on our extensive experience, strong work ethic, financial aptitude, and laser focus on root causes,” said Meislik.

According to Weiss, the Force 10 partners have completed over 100 engagements. Force 10’s most recent success was the Chapter 11 confirmation of AirFastTickets, Inc., on October 13, 2016. Other recent engagements include Freedom Communications (the Orange County Register), Turnberry/MGM Grand Towers, Bacchus Development, Breckenridge Food Systems/StarRibs, Crystal Cathedral Ministries, and Walldesign, Inc.